Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Judas' betrayal of Jesus is perhaps the greatest crime ever committed. Even the betrayer was filled with remorse for what he'd done. Today, lessons we can take from the actions of a man who was close to Jesus, but so very far away.
From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, Satan plays a major role in the story of Gethsemane, and today you'll explain how the devil and Judas conspired to betray Jesus. You know, Dave, I want to pick up on something that you said in your intro when you said that Judas was near to Jesus and yet so far away. Great insight.
It's possible to be next to someone physically, but your heart be somewhere else. And that, of course, is true about Judas. Just imagine being in the upper room with Jesus and yet even in that context deciding to betray him, and Satan entered into Judas because Satan saw an open door that he could walk through.
And of course, the rest is history, as they say, but it is indeed a tragic history. I've written a 30-day devotional entitled For Us. What this devotional does is every day it introduces you to a different aspect of the death of Jesus Christ, of course also the betrayal of Judas, Gethsemane, and so forth, and I can think of no topic that should occupy our thoughts more often than what Jesus did for us on the cross. And for a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Here's what you can do.
Go to RTWOffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now I'm going to be giving you that contact info again at the end of this message, but for now I want you to contemplate this tragic story. Whenever we give in to our passions and whenever we exploit our passions and whenever we choose to live by our passions, no matter the cost, what we discover is that there is ground, there is entry point, and what Satan was really doing is he was coming along to help Judas do what Judas had already thought of doing and planned to do. The devil in effect said, I'll help you do what you've decided to do.
There's another question, and this is brought up in the little booklet by John Piper entitled the most spectacular sin where he talks about Judas. Why did Satan change his technique? All throughout the life of Jesus, Satan is trying desperately to keep Jesus Christ from the cross. He's even using Peter to say, no, you will not die. Jesus said, get thee behind me Satan. And he's speaking to Peter because that was the will of the devil. Now the devil changes his mind and begins to help the process.
Why? Well, I think it's true. As Piper says, it's because Satan knew by now there is no way to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. The plan had been laid. The will of God had been done.
Jesus was resolute in his decision to go to the cross. And so as a result, Satan decided, since I can't stop it, I'm going to do all the damage I can in the process. I'm going to make it as hard as possible for Jesus. I'm going to use Judas so that I get the satisfaction of seeing this betrayal.
I'm just going to make this as messy as I can to make sure that Jesus has as hard a time as possible. And so Satan enters into Judas to do this ghastly deed, the most spectacular sin in the whole universe. Well, I've mentioned to you that Judas had a very covetous heart. He had a deceitful mind, and then he decided to go through with the deed and had a very resolute strong will. And now we do pick up the passage here in Mark chapter 14 verse 43.
Please follow along as I read. And immediately while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12 and with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I kiss is the man.
Seize him and lead him away under guard. And when he came, he went to him at once and said rabbi and kissed him. Matthew records in chapter 26 that Jesus Christ response was friend. Why did you come here?
Do what you have decided to do. Jesus, the gentleman, friend, why did you come here? Here's a kiss of betrayal. Judas as smooth as silk. Do you know anyone like that who can kill with kindness?
Do you know anyone who may do a good deed of kindness to simply deceive you? Jesus is here and Judas is betraying him with a kiss, no less. And so you know the rest of the story, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, and they came and they laid hands on Jesus and they carry him away. And now six trials are going to begin, three Jewish trials and three Roman trials. And that will be the subject of the message. The next message in the series.
When I speak about Jesus on trial for us, Judas goes to the chief priests and says, I betrayed him to you. Give me the money. So they give him 30 pieces of silver. Oh, silver. I don't know how much silver was worth on the common market in those days. I don't know what it was on the Middle East Dow Jones industrial average, but thank God for some silver hedge against inflation times are tough.
It's a little more than you need, but it's always good to have some for a rainy day. He gets his silver and the heart of Judas is glad I've got my money. But then he hears that Jesus has been condemned and he begins to think back over what he had done. And he's full of remorse. He knows right. Well, he has betrayed innocent blood.
He knows right well that he's stepped over a line here to be in a man's inner circle for three years. This man for three full years, working with him, praying with him, doing miracles with him and now betraying him. The Bible says that somehow money loses its luster.
Doesn't it? When you're filled with remorse and guilt. And so the scripture says that Judas takes the money and he goes back to the people who gave it to the men. He throws it into the treasury and they say, why are you doing that? We don't care what's happened to you.
Isn't that interesting? They were his friends. As long as the agreement was being reached, but when the agreement was over, the people didn't care at all for Judas. And then in desperation, not knowing where to turn because his remorse was so great, he did what 30,000 Americans do every year.
He committed suicide. Why Judas? Why does God put a person like Judas in the Bible? Judas actually is a prototype of every human being.
He's a picture of you and me. Don't get the impression that Judas somehow wasn't human. He was us.
Not sure if that's right grammar, but he was one of us. The fact is that none of us is as good inside as we purport to others to be outside. We're all hypocritical. We all have the potential for great evil within our hearts. So let's not point our finger at Judas, but let us learn from him. And there are a couple of important lessons that we should learn from Judas. Number one, no position of honor can substitute for personal faith in Jesus Christ. No position of honor can substitute for personal faith in Christ. You can teach. You can sing in the choir. You can be honored.
You can be well spoken about. You can memorize verses of scripture. You can pride yourself in the knowledge of the Bible and still be lost forever if you've never trusted Christ personally. And the Bible makes it very clear that Judas never did trust Christ.
Jesus said on one occasion, didn't I choose 12 and one of you is a devil? And then in John 17, Jesus, again, very clearly shows that Judas was not a part of him. The other disciples belonged, but Judas didn't. He was there in body, but he was not there in soul. Jesus, three years living in the presence of Christ had never captured the heart of Judas.
Money did that. Jesus didn't. There's a second lesson and that is that remorse doesn't save anybody. We won't look at the text, but the Bible says in a couple of places that Judas was filled with remorse, filled with remorse, but that didn't save him. You know, there are people today who live with guilt and they regret what they've done and they live with that regret and they think, well, you know, I've done this regret.
I've, I've done my duty in terms of paying it off. And they may think that they are thereby saved, but they aren't. You see Judas died, I'm sure because of self hatred as he thought about what he had done. And some of you are living today with self hatred because of the remorse, because of what has happened in your past. You, you are filled with remorse and I'm here to tell you today that that remorse does not count with God. All that counts with God is what Jesus Christ did on the cross and remorse is bearing my own guilt away from the presence of Christ who is able to speak me clean.
And I say to you today, don't live that way. It can lead you down the same path that Judas took. Don't live with remorse, but remorse will never save you. Bring that remorse in the presence of Christ and say, here I am a sinner needing to be saved.
Forgive me. I turn from my sin to the only one qualified to save me. You say, well, pastor Lutzer, if after the betrayal, if after Judas had taken this money and had thrown it down in the temple, if after that he had repented, would he have been saved?
And the answer is yes. The man who committed the most spectacular sin in the universe, the betrayal of the innocent son of God leading to the murder of the son of God could have been saved. If only he had turned to Christ and said, I've been a hypocrite.
I've been wrong. My sin is overwhelming. Forgive me. Can't imagine that Jesus would have turned him away. He'd have said, friend, I forgive you. I speak to those of you today who think that you have committed sins that are too great for you to be forgiven. The issue is not the greatness of your sin. The issue is the wonder of the forgiveness and the righteousness that God credits to sinners. That's the issue. And no matter how much you have sinned, you cannot out sin grace.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that you should sin in order that grace may abound. No, I'm not saying that, but no matter the greatness of the sin, you pile it up and God says, let me see your mountain of sin and I will show you a mountain of grace that is greater than your sin.
Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. But for Judas, it was water under the bridge, too much water under the bridge. And he couldn't have the heart at that point to turn back to the savior whom he had so cruelly spurned. There's a final lesson and that is that the gate to hell, the gate to hell is often right next to the gate to heaven.
Imagine this folks, just imagine it with Jesus three full years. Judas was there when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father, but by me, Judas was there and he heard it.
He was there to see the gracious words that proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus as Jesus held little children in his arms and as he went about doing good and doing miracles and preaching the sermon on the Mount, Judas heard it all and yet is known as the son of perdition and is lost forever right there in the presence of Jesus. Here is the gate to heaven. Here is the gate to hell. And Judas took the wrong path. What that means candidly is that some of you are here today and you've never trusted Christ as savior. Some of you who perhaps have heard the gospel preached from Moody church as it is every single Sunday and you still persist and saying no to the only one who can speak you clean and present you to God faultless right here at Moody church is the gate to heaven.
It's close to the gate to hell and they're next to one another. There are many different epitaphs in the Bible and knowing that I shall die, hopefully not too soon, but it'll happen. I've often thought, what would I like to have written on my tombstone? The Bible oftentimes gives us real hints as to what should be written on people's tombstones. For example, I think that despite David's great sin, I think David, if you were to have a tombstone, it would probably be a man after God's own heart. Saul in the old Testament said he wrote his own epitaph when he said, I've played the fool. That's a pretty good description of his life.
I've played the fool. Now I'm going to tell you something that should really bring tears to our eyes. There's an epitaph for Judas too. When Jesus said of Judas, it would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
Wow. Imagine would have been better if he had died as a child playing outside, would have been better if he had died in his mother's arms, would have been better if he had never been conceived. What an epitaph would be better if he had not been born. Because what the Bible clearly teaches is this. Jesus said, unless you're born again, you can't enter the kingdom of God. So hear me carefully when I say that, unless you are born twice, it would have been better if you had not been born once. So I have to ask you, and now we're just talking to one another, not talking to the person sitting next to you.
I'm talking to you. Are you born again? To the everlasting credit of the disciples when Jesus said, one of you is a betrayer. They asked that question, is it I?
And so I'm asking you today, is it you? Back in the year 2000, Rebecca and I had the opportunity of going to Oberammergau and the Passion play there in Oberammergau, Germany. And I have before me the soliloquy that was used in the Passion play at that time. It was a soliloquy that was used for Judas, and the person who played the part of Judas recited it with deep passion.
Let me give you a good part of it. Where can I go to hide my shame, to cast off the agony? No place is dark enough, no sea is deep enough. Earth opened up and devoured me. I can be no more. I betrayed him. The best of men I've delivered into the hands of his enemies to be tortured and executed.
Where is another man on whom such guilt rests? I am a contemptible traitor. How kind he has been toward me, how gently he comforted me when dark dejection oppressed my soul.
How he warned me when I was already harboring this shameless betrayal. Accursed Satan, you've made me blind in death. You tempted me to do this deed and dragged me into this abyss.
I'm not a disciple any longer. I'm hated everywhere, despised everywhere, berated as a traitor even by those who seduced me, exiled from human society with this blazing fire within my gut. Everyone takes flight from me, everyone curses me. Still there is one whose face I wish I could see again, the man to whom I could cling. Woe is me for there is no hope, there's no redemption. He's dead and I'm his murderer, cursed hour in which my mother gave birth to me. Am I to drag along this martyr's life any longer, endure these tortures within me, flee from others as one afflicted with the plague?
I can't bear it anymore. Not another step shall I take. Here I will bring to an end my accursed life.
Come you serpent, coil yourself around my throat and strangle this traitor. Jesus asked a very provocative question. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? Certainly, my friend, the story of Judas is one of the most sobering, frightening stories in all of scripture. The fact that he betrayed Jesus and then died a suicide. You know, when you stop to think of it, you must realize that what Jesus Christ experienced relates directly to us, not merely because his death forgave our sins, but also the fact that he was betrayed, and I'm speaking to some people today and you say, Pastor Lutzer, I have been betrayed. Jesus experienced that as well. He experienced betrayal.
He experienced false accusations. He was taken and in court cases was wrongly tried, yet he did it for us. That's why I want us to understand that Jesus is really an example for all of us as to how to endure suffering.
That's why I wrote the book entitled For Us. It's actually a booklet, 30 devotional readings that have to do with Jesus Christ as we contemplate Gethsemane, the cross, Judas, and all of the events that surrounded it. It has a scripture reading. It also has a devotional. It ends with a prayer that you can pray.
I want you to be fitted for the rest of the day. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. May I thank you in advance for helping us, for praying with us and for us. We appreciate it because together we're making a difference. Right now, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let's learn the lessons God wants us to learn as we contemplate the cross.
You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Erwin Lutzer, wrapping up Jesus Betrayed for us. The second message in a series simply called For Us. Next time, join us for Jesus on Trial for Us. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
